


Icing on the Cake

by fictorium



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: Baking, F/F, Kissing, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-30 01:52:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12643728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictorium/pseuds/fictorium
Summary: Janet can't summon baked goods. Humans to the rescue.





	Icing on the Cake

“Is Janet glitching again?” Eleanor asks, hands on her hips in exasperation. “Because seriously, even Best Buy would have offered refund or replace by now. No offense,” she adds as an afterthought, but Janet just smiles back at her.

“No, no!” Michael waves away the very motion with those big hands, his bow-tie especially jaunty today (or whatever measure of time actually applies, Eleanor’s never been great at that). “Only it turns out that before she popped him back in his box like a limited edition Funko, Derek may have done a little damage to the void. Specifically the area where Janet here likes to conjure her baked goods from.”

“How does that even-” Chidi begins, but Michael moves right past the interruption.

“The point is we need a bakery’s worth of baked goods to stock the town with, or people are going to be suspicious.”

“We can’t just rob a Cheesecake Factory?” Eleanor suggests, seeing where this is going and not liking it one bit. 

“I did that once!” Jason pipes up. “But it had been closed down for a week, and the cheesecake gave us food poisoning.”

“No, we’re going to have our first ever Good-Bad-Place bakesale!” Michael announces, almost jubilant about it. Eleanor still isn’t sure if this is some side torture he’s throwing in to get his fix. Still, rather him than Wendy. That demon chick has issues.

“Nuh uh. Not happening. I successfully store-bought for or outright ignored every bakesale in every school and workplace. I am not breaking that streak now.”

“Eleanor?” Chidi looks nervous about correcting her, but she knows what’s coming. “Ethically, giving back to the community, not to mention participating in a team, it would be progress on your, uh, journey…”

“Fine,” Eleanor sighs. Same bullshirt, different day.

***

And okay, maybe baking isn’t the worst thing in the world. After they relegate Jason to delivering the trays to the neighbourhood bakery–his first recipe suggestion was hot cheeto marshmallow bars–it just leaves four pairs of hands and a mostly-functional Janet to do the business end of things. 

Chidi–and okay maybe they should have seen it coming–is gripped by indecision when presented with a recipe book. Eleanor tries steering him towards the Snickerdoodles, something simple without variations. When he and Michael get caught up in it, Eleanor finds herself pulled aside by Tahani. Who already smells faintly like cinnamon and vanilla, despite not having picked up a spoon in anger yet. 

“Now Eleanor, as usual, saving the day is going to be down to us womenfolk. Not to worry, my dear friend Nigella taught me everything she knows about chocolate, and of course there’s Mary. No soggy bottoms for us!”

“Is that a euphemism?” Eleanor isn’t sure she minds, if Tahani is going to namedrop like that, just so long as the firm grip on her arm doesn’t let up. Only it does, because Tahani asks Janet to supply an apron and chef’s hat and damn, that’s a look.

“Now Eleanor,” Tahani leans in close. “Do you think you’re capable of following orders? Doing everything I say to ensure complete bliss for all concerned?”

“…” Is all Eleanor can come up with at first, before nodding. “Don’t I get the cool cooking gear too?”

“Well kitchens get terribly warm,” Tahani considers out loud. “Janet, can you rustle up the outfit I wore to Madonna in Hyde Park for Eleanor here? With an apron, of course.”

A moment later Eleanor is dressed in tiny white denim shorts and a candy pink tank top. It looks good on her, she is a total smoke-show after all, but she can only consider how amazing it must have looked on Tahani. Then the effect is spoiled by a generic ‘Kiss the Cook’ apron tying itself around her.

“No, no,” Tahani tuts. “Not tight enough. Here,” she explains, untying the apron and pulling it tighter. She ties the knot like she’s had plenty of practice. “Now, we’ll start on Victoria Sponge. You might think it’s simple, but I assure you there’s an art to it. Come along, pick up your bowl, Eleanor.”

“Yes ma’am,” is all Eleanor can say in response. She’s never been happier to be in a kitchen.

***

Hours later, with the trays of cookies and cakes and pastries being ferried across the neighborhood in secret, Janet taking care of most of it, while Jason gets a few boxes so he feels useful. Eleanor leans against the counter in the huge kitchen, dabbing her forehead with a folded dishtowel. 

“Wow. I have seriously never worked that hard. Is that what being good feels like?”

“Apparently I wouldn’t know. I did it for all the wrong reasons, remember?”

“You bake a mean cake,” Eleanor tells Tahani. “Seriously, that chocolate fudge thing almost made me go blind, if you know what I mean.”

“I could tell,” Tahani confirms, moving in close. “You actually have a little…” She touches Eleanor’s cheek gently and holy shirt, any lingering doubts about being into Tahani are wiped out with the crackle of electricity. “Chocolate,” Tahani finishes, wiping it from Eleanor’s bottom lip.

Which is totally fine, and Eleanor has bottled up every feeling she thought could drown her, except then Tahani is sucking the chocolate from her own thumb and how does a person just experience something like that and stay standing?

So as bad ideas go, it’s not exactly going to a waterpark on Labor Day bad, but kissing Tahani is so, so much better. She tastes like chocolate and kisses like it’s something special, something to be savored and not a preamble to getting naked and home before Jimmy Kimmel starts. 

“Oh,” Eleanor sighs when they finally pause for a second. “I did not know I was gonna do that.”

“Didn’t you?” Tahani asks. “I sort of assume everyone’s going to at least try, at some point.”

“How do you say that and still not sound arrogant?”

Eleanor gets kissed in response. It’s not bad, as arguments go. “Wait, does this make us soulmates or something?”

“Oh Eleanor, you really need to stop talking,” Tahani warns. “Or no more sweet treats for you.”


End file.
